wh5 = who, what, where, when and why. The five basic questions that are the structure of any story. Explored in "Who says what, where, when and and Why: Context in Conversation." An introduction to Sociolinguistics through Conversation Analysis. wh5 is the blogsite of the book published 2008 by Nanundo-Phoenix, Tokyo.

Friday, January 23, 2015

Fouled Plugs and Stale Petrol

1949 BSA

Oh woe, it will not go…

Mech: What’re
the symptoms?

WBB: It’s been
sitting, it started, then I shut it down,
came back, it turned over, then backfired with a great BANG.

Mech: Let’s
take a look (unscrews spark plug). Plug’s fouled. Coated with carbon, see? The
spark grounds on the metal shell rather than jumping the gap. And the petrol
smells old.

WBB: You can
tell?

Mech:
Sommeliers have noses. Mechanics have noses too.

WBB: Gas I
bought in 1949.

Mech: Ewq. New petrol, new plug.

__________

Voice-over

Bike engines
are fussier than car engines. If the machine has been stored, and you can start
it, keep it running, take it out on the highway for a half-hour run. Otherwise, as Mech says, "New petrol, new plug."